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Using the Search Facilities

The Saugus.net search facilities are meant to be fairly
intuitive for the novice yet still provide some sophisticated
capabilities for the experts.

Common endings to words will automatically be applied to the
words being sought after to save typing and intelligently
broaden searches. Search results will have a number of stars
for each returned page based upon how well the page meets the
original search criteria. The color of the stars will indicate
the location of the pages; white stars will indicate pages on
Saugus.net proper, yellow stars will indicate pages on local
non-profit sites, orange stars will indicate pages on local
commercial sites, and red stars will indicate pages on
Town.Saugus.MA.US, the official town government site.

Basic Usage

At the novice level, just type a word (or words) into the
search text window and press the "return" (or
"enter") key (or click the onscreen "Search"
button). A list of pages having something to do with those word(s)
will be returned.

If the Long format is active, a brief
description of each page will be displayed. If the
Short format is active, just the name of each
page will be displayed.

If the All match method is active, the
returned pages must relate to every search word. If the
Any match method is active, the returned pages
will only have to relate to some of the search words.

Boolean Usage

If the Boolean match method is active, more
powerful search queries may be entered in the search text
window. Using Boolean, the words "and",
"or", & "not" may be used along with
parentheses to specify exactly what is being sought.

While the query "golden and hills" will be just like the
query "golden hills" using the All match
method and the query "golden or hills" will be just like the
query "golden hills" using the Any match
method, the query "cliftondale or golden and hills" will
produce results not available with either the
All or Any match methods.
Likewise the query "hills not golden" will produce results not
available with the other methods -- in this case results
relating to hills but not the Golden Hills.

Parentheses can be used to clarify intended groupings;
"(golden and hills) or cliftondale" is unambiguous while
"golden and hills or cliftondale" may not do what is actually
desired.

Troubleshooting

I'm not finding anything

Check the spelling of all the search words you used. If
they're all okay, try making your search less restrictive or
somehow more general. If you're using the
All match method, switch over to
Any. If you intended a
Boolean search ensure you're really using
the Boolean match method. If you're using
the Boolean match method ensure that your
logic makes sense. Try changing any plurals to their singular
forms; for words with strange plurals (for example "cactus"
/ "cacti" or "datum" / "data"
or "louse" / "lice") try both forms. Try
using different (but related) words.

I'm finding too many things

Try making your search more restrictive or somehow less
general. If you're using the Any match
method, switch over to All.

I'm not finding a particular match that I know
ought to be there

The search database does not update immediately (or even
daily). If the match is a recent addition, wait a few days
and try again.

I'm having trouble reading the indicated
match

Is the page you're trying to view a regular web page or some
other type of file?
(Are you getting a message about trying to download a file with
a ".pdf",
".pkg",
".sxw",
or ".z5"
extension?) If the match is a PDF file you will
need a PDF
viewer on your system in order to read it. PDF viewers are freely
available for most computer platforms and can be typically set up
as plug-ins for your browser. Free viewers can be downloaded from the
Adobe
Acrobat web site. If the file is a
Newton book
you'll need a Newton book reader to view it (built into some machines,
available via shareware
or freeware
for others). If the file is a StarOffice document, you'll need
either StarOffice or OpenOffice to read it. The latter is freely
downloadable for most machines from the OpenOffice.org web site.
If the file is a Z-machine
data file, you'll need a virtual Z-machine to run it; these are
freely available for most computers. If the file isn't one of
these, the solution isn't obvious. It could be that the search
database was updated prior to the removal of the match, or it
could be a transient network communications problem.

I'm getting a syntax error

Usually the syntax error message will try and provide
some clue as to what went wrong. Typically the boolean
expression you entered under the Boolean
match method will defy logic in some obvious way and/or have
mismatching parentheses.